Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Is this perhaps the oldest Christian icon we know of?

I'm working on, and have nearly finished (for now) a moderately large round icon, ca. 22 inches in diameter, that depicts the Baptism of Jesus.  The original is a huge mosaic in the dome of the Arian Baptistry in Ravenna, Italy which dates to ca. 430 A.D.  And yes, Jesus is NOT wearing anything at all.  Didn't bother them.  Doesn't bother me.  Your mileage may vary.  Since I shot this photo I've worked on the details some more.  I needed to clean things up a bit so that I could hang this icon in the ICON SHOW at BETHLEHEM LUTHERAN, 4100 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls - all during Advent 2011.  When working from a mosaic original I find that I have to fight the urge to "go pontillist" (if that's the right spelling of a word that means refer to the school of French 19th Century painters?) and paint itty bitty dots of paint so I would end up with something that looks like a photograph of a mosaic.  I might try that sometime, but not right now.